My name is Gary Haupt and this is my second Blog. The first was in a different time and for a different reason. This Blog contains views. Picture views..personal views..views from places I want to go to. Or have been to, even. Views on cooking, views on love. Views on Life. Oh yeah..I am a huge Life knower...hahahahahaha.
My partner Sharon Nichols and I live in Penticton BC, Canada.
If you see/want a full resolution of a pic of mine, I am happy to forward it.

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Monday, 3 September 2012

South to Carcross, Yukon

Like..okay...the drive down from Whitehorse this morning, to Carcross was damned pretty.

This is the #1 coffee joint in Carcross..also has the museum. The rail tracks are part of the White Pass system. Ah seen the trax, ain't seen the injun.

Downtown Carcross.....don't blink.

If you have ever seen the dunes of Oregon, then this should look awfully familiar to you.

Contents

Background

Carcross Desert is commonly referred to as a desert, but is actually a series of northern sand dunes. The area's climate is too humid to be considered a true desert.[2] The sand was formed during the last ice age, when large glacial lakes formed and deposited silt. When the lakes dried, the dunes were left behind. Today, sand comes mainly from nearby Bennett Lake, carried by wind. The dunes contain a wide variety of plants, including unusual varieties such as Baikalsedge and Yukonlupine, among others.[2][3]
The Yukon Territorial government
made efforts to protect Carcross Desert in 1992, but failed due to
opposition from locals who use the dunes for recreational purposes.[2]

Climate

Carcross Desert in winter.

Carcross Desert is significantly drier than the surrounding region,
receiving less than 50 cm of rain per year. This is due mainly in part
to a rain shadow effect caused by surrounding mountains.[4] As a result, several rare species of plant life have taken hold in the comparatively arid conditions. Carex sabulosa,
or Baikal sedge, is only known to exist in four other sites in North
America, mainly existing in Asia. Yukon Lupine, also unusual for the
surroundings, "grows like a weed."[3] While the vegetation in the area currently locks much of the dune system in place, a large event such as a forest fire could easily clear out the vegetation and return the dunes to an active state.

The answer, to be clear, is that the Carcross Desert is not an actual desert. Rather, it is a large bed of sand that marks the location of a glacial lake bed dating back over 10 000 years ago.
The names ‘Carcross Dunes’ or ‘Carcross Sands’ would probably be more
accurate. The name, however, has been embedded for so long in local
parlance that it’s not going anywhere. Regardless of what it’s called,
it’s a fascinating geological oddity.

The village of Carcross sits on a narrow outwash plain that
separates Bennett Lake to the west from Nares Lake
to the east. Both lakes are remnant of
Glacial Lake Watson, a post-glacial lake that formed during the late Pleistocene at the end of
the last ice age. As the glaciers in the
region retreated, the glacial meltwater collected in the deep valley basin of
the mountainous region. The sediments
and rock flour the glaciers ground away from the valley walls, formerly trapped
with the glaciers themselves, were now washed into the lake and deposited over
thousands of years, creating a thick lakebed of extremely fine silt. The
area where the village now sits was formerly 120 metres (393 ft) below the
surface of the lake.

Eventually Glacial Lake Watson shrank
and dried away with the disappearance of the glaciers, producing the
intricate network of rivers and mountain lakes in southern Yukon and northwest
British Columbia known today as the Southern Lakes, of which
Bennett and Nares are but two. The lower
water levels in the region exposed much of the ancient lake bed, most of which
became vegetated over time. The area of
the Carcross Desert, however, lies in a small mountain rain shadow that receives
less than 50 cm (20 in) of rain per year.
As a result, the area stays dry, the surface stays unstable, and only a small amount of vegetation
has managed to anchor itself in the troughs between the dunes, shielded from
the abrasive effects of the wind. Plant
species not typically found in other similar regions such as Baikal sedge,
Siberian asters, and Yukon lupine
have made their homes here, as have ten rare species of insects that feed on
the plants.

Bennett Lake’s continued presence in the region is what
keeps the Carcross Desert going. The
Watson River empties into Bennett Lake just west of Carcross, carrying with it
more sand and silt. When low
water levels expose the large sandy beaches of the lake in spring, northwesterly
winds blowing across the lake send the finely-grained sand directly into the
path of the dunes located 2 km (1.2 mi) away.
Sand grains are blown up the slight slopes of the Desert, forming large
bumps that eventually crest and collapse into dunes.

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I lived in Vancouver for years..drove a city bus. Moved to Kitimat in the winter of '09. I now live with my partner, Sharon Nichols and travel as much as I can..whether in my 4x4 rv, or flying off somewhere.